Help? Power supply problem?

[DrPizza]

Dell computer, so I don't know if it's one of their proprietary power supplies or not...

Turn on the computer - nothing.
I figured it was the power supply..

Then, I happened to be behind the computer and noticed the power supply fan spins slightly, then stops, then spins slightly, then stops... on and off....

Any ideas?
(been on hold with Dell support for close to an hour now)

 

[Matthias99]

It's either the PSU or the motherboard (very hard to tell in these cases without being able to test them separately). Or your power button is stuck and it's just turning on and off really fast...

 

[DrPizza]

It's not cycling now... Dell service had me disconnect everything... they troubleshot that it's the motherboard, since a little green light comes up on the motherboard.

However, after they had me do everything, I placed the power supply under a small load (a couple of drives) and tried the paper-clip trick..
Power supply fan does not come on......

I've got a spare power supply; how do I know if the one in the Dell computer is proprietary or not?

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: DrPizza
It's not cycling now... Dell service had me disconnect everything... they troubleshot that it's the motherboard, since a little green light comes up on the motherboard.

However, after they had me do everything, I placed the power supply under a small load (a couple of drives) and tried the paper-clip trick..
Power supply fan does not come on......

I've got a spare power supply; how do I know if the one in the Dell computer is proprietary or not?

Depends on the model you have (which, conveniently, you didn't mention ). If you google it, I'm sure you can find out whether it needs a custom PSU.

You could also compare the wiring between it and a regular ATX PSU.

 

[DrPizza]

stupid me for not putting down the model number...


Anyway.. on the back of the power supply, I noted the 115V to 230V switch was *slightly* pushed over... Now the paperclip trick works...
reconnected the power supply to motherboard and still nothing